We adore Japanese snacks (the packaging! The exotic flavours!), but jostling with the crowd at a Don Don Donki or Daiso outlet can be a test of human endurance. Then we got a press e-mail update from Japan External Trade Organization’s (JETRO) PR folks. For a short period from now till March 31, JETRO partners local online retailer RedMart to hold a Japan Hyper Fest, offering imported Japan-made confectionery, artisanal snacks and fresh produce.

The collaboration, which includes a range of Hokkaido products, also came about as JETRO aims to boost Hokkaido’s economy through exports, after a devastating magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck southern Hokkaido in September 2018 and severely disrupted their industries.

Out of curiosity, we had a peek at the foodstuff on RedMart. To be honest, the items aren’t unique to the e-tailer. You can get most of them at your nearest Don Don Donki store, or even Daiso at relatively competitive prices. The difference is that when you shop for your Japanese junk food blowout online, there are deliverymen to do all the heavy lifting of sending your purchases to your doorstep, and nobody cuts your queue at the cashier counter. The pleasure for such service comes at a $5.99 shipping fee, unless your order is above $40.

Still, there’s the thing about RedMart’s recent move to Lazada. Customers could previously shop for RedMart groceries via the retailer’s own dedicated website. But as of March 15, RedMart’s operations have shifted over to their new platform on the Alibaba Group-owned online shopping website Lazada, which bought over RedMart in 2016. While the RedMart branding will still be used there, this means that the RedMart app and website are now defunct, though you can buy their products via Lazada’s app and website.

“You can search the term ‘JETRO special’ or scroll down the page and click on the Japan Hyper Fest tab below the ‘Top Picks’ section to access the wide range of products,” JETRO’s PR rep tells us, adding that customers can also shop for the items via this link. It all sounds pretty troublesome to us. Can bring back RedMart’s own website or not?

We’ve always found Lazada’s layout tedious to navigate, unlike RedMart’s clean, user-friendly website. The joy of browsing RedMart for things we didn’t even know we need or want is gone now, and we’re not sure if we want to continue buying from RedMart-Lazada in future.

But good news for diehard customers, RedMart’s handy delivery timeslot reservation (that you can chope when you’re checking out your groceries) is still available, via Lazada. Though the function to amend your order after you’ve checked out (for when, say, you forgot to include a crucial bottle of soy sauce) is “not available yet”, we’re told.

Below are some Japanese products from the RedMart x JETRO collaboration that we think would make more sense to order online. If you don’t drive or live next door to Don Don Donki, it’s mercifully convenient to get perishable frozen foodstuff, heavy snack products and fragile items like cookies delivered.

1/5

1/5

Santan Grilled Conger Eel Unagi Pressed Sushi, $16.90

Previously, you could only get this elegantly-packaged sushi in Japan. The saikyo-style sushi (which has the unagi - Japanese eel - wrapped around a mound of rice) hails from Fukui prefecture in Honshu, and features Fukui’s rice and sushi vinegar. The aburi unagi is first steamed, then flame-torched, and the sushi is frozen after packaging to preserve its shelf life. You only need to defrost your sushi at room temperature for half an hour to consume it. Sounds like a lot of effort to eat unagi sushi, but it beats flying to Japan yourself to try it.

2/5

2/5

Snaffle’s Cheese Catch Cakes, $14.80 for a box of four

This Hokkaido cheesecake brand is one of the prefecture’s most famous. It ran a short-lived stall at the basement of Plaza Singapura which has since shuttered, but it still has dine-in cafes at River Valley Road and International Plaza in Tanjong Pagar. If you are too lazy to trek to the CBD to get cheesecakes, order it online. The palm-sized cream cheesecakes are made with Hokkaido milk and eggs, and apparently boast a soft, fluffy texture that’s not too jelak.

3/5

3/5

Tono Charcoal-Grilled Fried Biscuits, $4.25

At first glance, this looks like ordinary wheat flour biscuits to us. But they are actually charcoal-grilled, which is said to impart a smokier, rustic flavour to the biscuits. Each biscuit is also speckled with fine Japanese salt. We’ve tried these biscuits and found them much more delicious than the ordinary mini Marie biscuits that you find at old-school Singaporean snack shops, with a heftier crunch. Worth the heftier price tag too.

4/5

4/5

Toa Meat-Free Vegetarian Tonkotsu Ramen, $4.50

Vegetarian tonkotsu ramen sounds like an oxymoron (the ramen broth is traditionally made by boiling pork bones for hours till the soup becomes cloudy). But hey, it’s good for vegan and vegetarian folks who want a taste of tonkotsu ramen. This instant meat-free version uses flavouring like yeast extract, garlic powder and soy sauce powder to mimick the taste of tonkotsu broth. “Because raw materials are not animal-derived, suitable for vegan, vegetarian, Hinduism and Muslim religiously with confidence,” chirps the Japlish description helpfully on the RedMart website. This works like instant noodles (each packet includes ramen and a soup stock sachet), except it seems more gourmet: the noodles are not the typical freeze-dried variety, and you just boil everything for four minutes, add the soup seasoning and serve.

5/5

5/5

Morinaga DIY Microwave Chocolate Cake Set, $7.23

Craving chocolate cake at midnight? This DIY cake kit lets you make your own in five minutes with a microwave oven. Each kit comes with a cake premix, and you just need to add an egg and vegetable oil to the premix in a microwaveable container, chuck it into your microwave oven, and heat for around five minutes. We don’t think it’s going to be the yummiest chocolate cake out there, but it will do if you die die want to eat chocolate cake at 3am, we suppose.